Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendment to H.R. Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Humanitarian Assistance and Security At the Southern Border Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this emergency supplemental bill.

Madam Speaker, the principles guiding this bill were clear from the outset. It is a response to a humanitarian crisis.

By increasing the housing capacity at Health and Human Services to moving these vulnerable children from the detention centers at Customs and Border Protection as quickly as possible to Health and Human Services, because we know what the conditions are at CBP. They are deplorable. In fact, it is government-sponsored child abuse.

We wanted to build in the protections for children that have been nonexistent in the past, and we uncovered those abuses. They have been reported in the press. The Miami Herald just recently said they are ``prison-like conditions'' at Homestead.

And we wanted to place children with a sponsor in a safe placement, a safe environment, as expeditiously as possible to reverse the administration's policy of frightening sponsors to come forward.

This bill includes strong protections and safeguards for these vulnerable children; it extends to the influx shelters' enhanced standards of care. And, my friends, it is for the first time ever. These protections have never been required of these influx shelters.

It continues to prevent the waiving of core standards and protections after 6 months.

It continues to hold influx shelters accountable by requiring HHS to remove an operator if they do not comply with these core standards.

If the shelter is not in compliance, then HHS is required to award the contract to a new service provider, and the bill continues to protect sponsors and potential sponsors by extending a provision that prohibits funds from being used to put anyone into a removal proceeding based on information from HHS' sponsor-vetting process.

The bill continues to require HHS to maintain the directives that they issued in December that removed bureaucratic barriers and have helped to place these children with sponsors as expeditiously as possible. And the bill continues to require HHS to report to Congress within 24 hours if an unaccompanied child dies in HHS custody.

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, a child did die in HHS custody. No one knew about this for 8 months, and it was only the news media that uncovered it. A child died.

This bill continues to ensure that Members of Congress can conduct oversight visits of shelters without being required to provide advance notice, and the bill continues to protect taxpayer funding by prohibiting funds from being diverted to programs outside of Health and Human Services. This bill provides clear direction, legal guardrails, about how our emergency funds should be used, and this bill wages the battle for the vulnerable.

Madam Speaker, I urge every Member of this House to support this bill.

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